Tell Congress: Stop the proposed “Republic of Cliven Bundy”

Sign the petition

The petition to Congress reads:

"Stop trying to make it harder to create national monuments on federally owned land. Remove the ‘Republic of Cliven Bundy’ amendment authored by Reps. Stewart and Goser from final passage of the Department of Interior Appropriations bill."

Cliven Bundy, the right-wing anti-government rancher best known for an armed standoff with federal and state officials over the use of public land, could metaphorically have a Texas-sized republic named after him if two extremist Republican congressmen get their way.1

Conservative western-state Republicans snuck a provision into an otherwise routine funding bill that would prevent President Obama, and future presidents, from designating nearly 250,000 square miles of federally owned land across the country as national monuments.

Congress is still working out the final text of the bill. It must remove this proposal before a final vote to protect these fragile lands across the country.

Tell Congress: Stop the proposed “Republic of Cliven Bundy.”

Cliven Bundy and his supporters believe the U.S. government has no right to manage or protect federally owned land, an irrational position that a vocal, gun-toting few have been willing to take up arms against the government and go to jail over.2

The provision, tacked-on by Reps. Stewart and Goser to a Department of Interior Appropriations bill, would bar the president from protecting sacred Native American lands from grave robbing and looting at Bears Ears in Utah and stop a popular proposed national monument in the North Woods of Maine, two proposals that tens of thousands of CREDO activists have stepped up to support in recent weeks.

This attempt is just another in a long line by extreme, right-wing ideologues who accuse the Obama administration of “federal overreach” of public lands. It’s absolutely unconscionable that right-wing extremists would play politics instead of protecting such important American treasures.

It’s urgent that we act now and pressure Congress to remove this provision, or any other legislation that would jeopardize the president’s ability to permanently protect federal land.